Best Real Food Product Awards

A while ago, before the world started shutting down, I saw a feature in People Magazine where they chose the best (i.e. their favorite) food products for a bunch of different categories. And, no real big surprise, but most of them were highly processed—UGH!

So I’ve got the perfect remedy for that issue. We’ll just make our own “awards” for the Best Real Food Products in stores these days. Not at all sponsored, just items we truly like and buy ourselves. A great list to pull from next time you’re restocking your kitchen!

How these items were chosen:

1. The ingredients are as close to our real food rules as possible.
2. Best taste/texture/etc.

Best Real Food Product Awards

Best Salsa

Trader Joe’s Green Salsa
This is great to go with tacos and to also cook with (like in this Slow Cooker Green Salsa Chicken recipe).

Best (Ready) Rice

Simple Truth Organic Brown Rice
Their brown rice mix with quinoa and garlic powder is good for something different as well!

Best Ramen

Lotus Organic Brown Rice Ramen
These are 100% whole grain and tasty! We don’t use the spice packets.

Best Pasta

Grand Mere Whole-Wheat Egg Noodles
These taste almost homemade! A much better texture than standard store bought noodles.

Best Yogurt

Stonyfield or Organic Valley Plain Yogurt
Always best to buy plain and flavor it yourself.

Best Mainstream Cereal

Cheerios
Definitely not perfect, but whole grain and my children (and their friends) will actually eat it.

Best Hummus

Trader Joe’s Organic Plain Hummus
Fairly clean ingredients and organic.

Best Crackers

Thin Triscuits
The texture of these is far superior to the normal Triscuits, in my opinion!

Best Graham Crackers

Annie’s Homegrown Organic Honey Graham Crackers
Note these are not 100% whole-grain!

Best Pitas

Trader Joe’s Whole-Wheat
These are 100% whole-grain and freeze beautifully so I stock up whenever I can.

Best Peanut Butter

Whole Foods Organic Creamy Peanut Butter (unsweetened & no salt)
I usually like the 1-ingredient grind-your-own, but it’s currently no longer available!

Best Flour

King Arthur White Whole-Wheat (for baking) or Bob’s Red Mill Whole-Wheat Pastry Flour
Both are a little hard to find at the moment (sadly).

Best Popcorn

LesserEvil Organic Popcorn with Himalayan Pink Salt
Available at Whole Foods and Amazon. We also buy and like Boom Chica Pop and Skinnypop brand as well.

Best Snack Bar

LÄRABAR
My current favorite is the peanut butter cookie flavor.

Best Macaroni and Cheese

Annie’s Shells & White Cheddar with Whole Grains
They used to have one that is 100% whole-grain, but it was replaced by this version. It’s mostly whole-grain, but not 100%. Available at Target and Whole Foods.

Best Pretzels

Unique Sprouted “Splits” Pretzel Original
Available at Fresh Market and Amazon.

Best Whole Grain Bread

Ezekiel (by Food for Life) or check your local bakery
This is a good choice for plain whole-grain bread, but we also really like their cinnamon raisin version as well.

I hope this helps you find some new things to try. What categories did I leave off this list that you’d like to see next?